Challenges Await Eni's Familiar Face

Claudio Descalzi Should Not Just Be Content With Continuity

It is an odd system that allows the government to overhaul top management of state-controlled companies every three years. Odder still is that investors in Italian oil-and-gas company Eni SpA have been seemingly unconcerned at the impending political intervention in its executive suite.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Monday named new bosses for some of Italy's biggest companies, opting to replace Eni's chief executive Paolo...